Cross-Cultural Collection

Denver artists Don and Grace Quade curate a harmonious home filled with global artwork and accents

Artists live with their art. It’s part of their environment, integrated into the everyday. They understand that art doesn’t have to be hung on a white wall in the glow of a spotlight. It can be appreciated just as much when slightly obscured by a stack of books or a potted plant. At least that’s what Denver-based painter Don Quade and his wife Grace, a jeweler, believe.

A painting by Don Quade, The Seventh Season, is installed over the fireplace, joining a global mix in the living room that includes a Mexican painting, a pot from Peru and Italian leather chairs from Calia Salotti.

In the sunroom, under a painting by artist and friend Robin Daniels, the Quades grouped a Portuguese pot, a Nepalese box, an African statue fragment and a Chinese calligraphy brush atop a Chinese cabinet, creating a cross-cultural vignette.

A painting in the stairwell—Centrosphere by Roland Bernier—inspired the color palette of the surrounding spaces and a small piece by Don, Pyracantha, adds another dash of red.

Don Quade’s painting, Winter Dahlias, is showcased in the couple’s dining room.

The Quades have created comfortable living spaces outdoors too, installing a teak bench here and a café table there, and furnishing a well-appointed patio space, complete with festive twinkle lights. “We put them up for our son’s graduation and then we let the ivy grow over them,” Don says. “Now we use them all of the time.”

The lights are one of many installations that have become permanent exhibits in the Quades’ home, layered in with the miscellanea of modern life. “We thought that, at some point, we would rotate our art,” Don says, “but once it finds the perfect spot, it just never ends up moving.”

An Artist’s Life
Don and Grace Quade are working artists, creating objects that adorn both walls and bodies. Here’s how to find their work:  

Don Quade’s abstract mixed-media paintings and collages can be seen at Walker Fine Art and at donquade.com.

Grace Quade creates custom jewelry that is made to order. For inquiries, contact Grace at dquade4@comcast.net.